Children Collide - Watch this space!

Children Collide are the Melbourne duo made up of Johnny and Heath, who started their epic music journey after meeting at Lismore Uni, and then deciding to hitch a ride to Melbourne, in the years following, Children Collide was born.
Describing their music as a collective, changing from electro, to metal, to clash, to indie, often in the same song, Lead vocalist Johnny, and self admitted folder – not scruncher, likes to describe their music as passionate and original, guaranteeing that people heading to a gig can expect a lot of flailing around, sweat and blood.
With a true passion for music and the work they do, drawing inspiration from the strangest sources, he explains that his influences are far-ranging, "People who inspire me, people who I think are good. People like ‘The Midnight Juggernauts’, who are two of my good friends. I love how ‘diy’ they are. They play at a lot of techno and house events and probably have to listen to the same kind of music a lot, it’s great to see how unaffected they are by the scene around them".

"Songs come from books I’m reading, to documentaries, to scientific shows, I watched a documentary about scientists drilling in to the polar ice caps on Mars and had an apocalyptic vision about this 5 million year old bacteria being brought back from mars to earth, One of the songs on the EP was inspired by David Attenborough".

"Heaps of different artists inspires me, both positively and negatively; People who make great music, people who make mediocre music. People who are quite successful with mediocrity. I guess I see them and think, If they can do it, I should get off my ass and push my own shit a bit harder, not saying I think what we’re doing is mediocre, but those people make the industry a lot less intimidating, yet a lot more confusing in some ways.”

But with so much competition in the Australian music industry, Johnny explains that "The drive that music is what I should be doing is what really keeps me going. I see a psychiatrist and he said to me, you shouldn’t be in the ‘rat race’. Because I tend to wig out when I’m stuck in a 9-5 job", and further, offers these words of advice for struggling bands. "Someone we’re working with recently said to me, “people will cross the street to you if you just do your own thing.” So I guess just do what you believe is right, when bands contrive a sound, or write music with a conscious and impure motivation you can generally feel it in their songs. If it’s organic and feels right, I guess keep struggling with it. And don’t compromise for people either, If they are holding you back by focussing on who they’re going to fuck, or what drugs they’re going to stick up their nose, fuck them, they are not going anywhere, all that fun shit that people attach to their idealist views of being a famous musician should be secondary to playing and writing music".

Johnny attributes this perseverance as one of the key reasons for the band's success, which has seen them tour the UK and parts of Europe. Including playing at an 11 hour improvisation gig in Paris, which he acknowledges as one of the coolest things the band has done. Johnny also adds that there have also been some bad things happen to the band, the major one being the disintegration of the original formation band after their first drummer quit.
After recently touring as a support with The Pharaohs, the guys are hoping to tour again in February. Johnny insists that playing in most countries is all pretty bloody similar, "You’re just doing your thing, so Australia’s not that different to the rest of the world. Except in parts of the UK people who don’t even know you come to gigs, just to check you out, even if they don’t know you, it doesn’t matter, and they’ll still come and check you out. In parts of Australia, you’ll see a lot of folded arms, which doesn’t matter, we like a challenge. But in some cities like Adelaide and Sydney, people just come to see a show, so we don’t have any preferences"

After the release of their EP Glass Mountain Liars they are currently working on an album deal, “we are hoping to release something in the UK after February. We are going to try and release something for the people who went out and spent money on our EP. Then we are moving on to what I guess you could call a world tour, including America, the UK, and Japan. And we also have Homebake coming up, and we will keep working on our songs.”

With only two members, you would expect some bitch fights and ‘creative differences', but, with the help of their new manager, Johnny insists 'Creative differences are something all bands have to deal with. There’s no point doing something people in your band hate, because it’s going to be shit. There’s no point doing a song Heath hates, because I’m the main songwriter, Heath is kind of a filter, he filters out what he doesn’t like. He makes sure the crappier, cheesier stuff I write doesn’t make the cut".

So for this indie-clash-rock band, what can you expect to find in Johnny’s album collection? “ The first music I bought was a tape, when I was really little, because my older sisters are really into music, It was either Talking Heads or INXS, then it was The Cure and Guns n' Roses. A couple of my favourite albums are The Dirty Three's ‘Horse Stories’ and Sonic Youth's ‘Murray Street’, not everyone likes that album so much though. Another favourite would have to be Pink Floyd ‘ Dark Side of the Moon’, anyone who loves that album should see the movie ‘Live at Pompeii’.

Despite the wicked record collection, Johnny, if he could, would really have liked to tour with…"Beethoven. I really like Beethoven. He introduced me to classical music. I really got into his symphonies. I also have a thing about meeting people that are really great. So probably Sonic Youth, but then I think I don’t really think I’m worthy to tour with them because they are so great. Or maybe Beck. I also think it’d be cool to tour with one of those really glam 80s bands, like Motley Crue, or maybe Delta Goodrem, Delta Goodrem would be awesome!".

Not your average blah band, Children Collide have already started gathering momentum in the industry, and these Carlton Draught drinkers bring a much needed light to the somewhat dimming – average Aussie music scene. With a genuine loyalty and dedication to their music, not their ‘image’, it is easy to see that these guys have had a long and hard road, which hopefully, will soon enough-pay off its debts.

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